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Easiest Solution

1) Open Vim editor,
2) Get the path of your home directory by typing :echo $HOME
3) Check if you have .vimrc file in $HOME location,(if you don't have create it)
4) Add the following line line to .vimrc file
set nocompatible
or
set nocp

Spent a whole day trying to use the escape characters and down arrow keys, i always got the message about error in RHS, finally the above solution worked and now i can use arrow keys in insert mode with both vi and vim.

It also fixes the "backspace won't delete" problem that some people have.

Additional solution 1

See solution 15 for another imap binding solution if this one doesn't work for you.

Note: ^[ is one symbol, try to enter it using <Ctrl-V>ESC or <Ctrl-V><Ctrl-[>

Additional solution 2

This doesn't really work very well for me on SunOS -- I have the same problem but :set term=cons25 just gives me OC everywhere before each character until I redraw. Weird.

But, :set term=ansi works great, and the arrow keys work.

A better solution is to, while in vi, type in insert mode [ctrl-v][arrow up] and see what you get.
Then, in your .vimrc, add the lines

set t_ku=[ctrl-v][esc]OA # or whatever you saw

so it ends up looking something like

set t_ku=^[OA
set t_kd=^[OB
set t_kr=^[OC
set t_kl=^[OD

(though you want real escape chars instead of "^[".)

And in addition, set term=ansi makes syntax color off in vim (afair FreeBSD with color xterm).

Additional solution 3

So are we to be left with no good freebsd / bash solution?

set t_ku=^[OA
set t_kd=^[OB
set t_kr=^[OC
set t_kl=^[OD

did nothing for me... and the no environment option is not a good one.

set mouse=a at least allows me to move in insert mode.

Additional solution 4

I had the same problem a few days ago. I figured out that i didnt have the ~.vimrc file. So, i went to /usr/local/share/vim/vim58 and copied the vimrc_example.vim to ~.vimrc. Problem solved!

I can confirm that the arrow-key problem (under freebsd) disappeared as soon as I introduced .vimrc

Additional solution 5

After experiencing this issue on FreeBSD 6 and 7 I found the clue as to why arrow keys would display A B C D when in insert mode - buried within :help nocompatible is this nugget:

By default this option is on and the Vi defaults are used for the options. This default was chosen for those people who want to use Vim just like Vi, and don't even (want to) know about the 'compatible' option.

When a vimrc or gvimrc file is found while Vim is starting up, this option is switched off, and all options that have not been modified will be set to the Vim defaults. Effectively, this means that when a vimrc or gvimrc file exists, Vim will use the Vim defaults, otherwise it will use the Vi defaults.

So rather than mucking around with termcap settings create an empty .vimrc file first and see if the issue is resolved. Or, copy the default vimrc_example.vim to ~/.vimrc If not, try the termcap suggestions.

It also appears that it must be started as "vim" rather than "vi" in order to read the .vimrc file. I've added an alias to my bashrc scripts to take care of this... "alias vi=vim"

If you are using vi instead of vim, you need to update the above commands in .exrc file instead of .vimrc. Since alias makes you to work in vim, even you type vi.

"So, i went to /usr/local/share/vim/vim58 and copied the vimrc_example.vim to ~.vimrc. Problem solved!"

Slightly different path for me, but confirmed it works on sunOS 10, also fixed my backspace issue, setup the colors, and search highlights.

Additional solution 6

I have a similar problem but slightly different. After a very recent update of my system including vim71 the left and right arrow keys started to play up. They both moved left and right respectively, but only by word increments!

Setting ":set term=builtin_ansi" fixed the problem, so I knew it was a terminal problem.

Looking further ":set t_kl" reporting the weird string "^[O*D" Setting this to "^[[D" or "^[OD" has no effect on the arrow keys actions, it remains jumping by word.

Only setting "term=ansi" seems to help. But destroys use of function keys, and the alternate editing screen (preserving normal command line output display, when not editing). So I am stuck with 'word jumping arrow keys'.

I had the same problem, but solved it in a better way by "se term=linux" in my .vimrc. That way, I don't lose my syntax highlighting, function keys, etc, and still managed to stop the "word jumping" arrow keys.

Additional solution 7

I had the same problem using Mandriva 2010. The solution was to install vim-common from the urpmi repository.

Additional solution 8

I had the arrow keys switching from normal mode to insert mode when I was using vim in the terminal: E.g. pressing "up" would do the same as <Esc>OA, where <Esc> had no effect, O would switch to insert mode, and A would enter the letter "A". The reason was that I in my .vimrc I had mapped <Esc> in normal mode to do funky stuff. Removing the mapping fixed it.

Additional solution 9

On my default Ubuntu install, vi meant actual vi, but I was used to vim where this problem didn't occur.

My solution was apt-get install vim.

Also by default on Ubuntu 10.10 you can use vim-tiny and that takes care of the odd characters.

Additional solution 10

On my Gentoo and Debian installs, this problem was caused by the autoclose plugin and using the workarounds above didn't help.
The only solution for me was to get rid of the autoclose plugin.

Same problem here, the issue appeared on my machine after installing "Limp for Vim", Lisp IDE, for all open Lisp files.
Disabling autoclose plugin in Limp got me the arrow keys back.
Thanks!

It does seem like the version of autoclose distributed with Limp is causing this. The latest version doesn't have this problem, although Backspace still isn't working for me.

You can fix the arrow key problem by downloading the newest version of autoclose. You then need to modify mode.vim in Limp. Autoclose no longer has the functions AutoClose_start and AutoClose_stop, and mode.vim calls these functions. Edit mode.vim to change

call AutoClose_start()

to

AutoCloseOn

and

call AutoClose_stop()

to

AutoCloseOff

Hope this helps.
Nick Coleman

Additional solution 11

I had this problem with a client's server config. Because I didn't have much power or permission to change things, and time was tight, I simply did the following and resolved the problem.

:set term=ansi

If you ever have that kind of situation, give that a shot.

Additional solution 12

I had this problem when I would ssh into a debian squeeze server. My solution was an alias on the server:

alias vim='vim.tiny'

Hope this helps ... Pick2

Additional solution 13

If you are using putty in windows, try to disable application cursor keys mode:

This solution is nearly identical to solution 2 with the exception that "^[O" from "imap ^[OA <ESC>ki" has been replaced with "<ESC>o"

I think the imap solution is preferable to any of that term modification stuff because I found that changing the term value corresponding with the other solutions on this page may completely lock out the ability to use escape characters, such as in the context of changing the cursor color depending on which mode you are in. Using imap is def. the least invasive solution.

Check whether a plugin is causing this behavior

This behavior can also be caused by a defective plugin. If you are using Pathogen for managing your bundles (which you should), you can disable individual plugins by adding them to the list variable "pathogen_disabled" (StackOverflow tip):

let g:pathogen_disabled = ['delimitMate']

Additional solution 16

If you are using Cygwin or Cygwin64 Terminal, the "set nocompatible" in a .vimrc does not always work.

Run vi with -N (which does the same thing as nocompatible -- but works).

For example:
vi -N .bashrc

then add the line:
alias vim='vi -N'

wq!

exit the terminal. From now on use vim.

Additional solution 17

I tried all suggestions from this page, but the only thing that worked for me (Debian server, connected with "Konsole" from other linux), was to uninstall the vim-tiny package and to install the vim package.

Additional solution 18

Having "set noesckeys" in my ~/.vimrc set caused the problem to me with Vim 7.4 on Gnome Terminal on Debian.